[RPG] Helping new players learn a setting on the go

Random advice from a Paranoia GM

• Plan one to three sessions. Too much longer is not easily sustainable, at least not without toning the violence and craziness down and getting buy-in from the whole group.

• Make sure that each PC has good reasons to kill at least two other PCs. Ok, maybe not good reasons, but reasons.

• PCs' agendas will be defined by their mission, their secret society, and their service group/firm. Have these conflict for just about every PC, so that they're torn about what they should be doing. Swap them up during play via direct questioning by The Computer, NPCs during play (like their Briefing Officer), their secret societies (make their priorities known and have them change for ineffable reasons), etc.

• Give each player at least one treasonous item. Maybe even something useful.

• Explain note passing. They should be sending you notes all the time.

• Pass out Perversity Points like candy. (I use poker chips.) Any time a player does something hilarious, in the spirit of the game, forwards the basic plot (if any), takes the players out of a boring situation, blames something on another PC, sends an awesome note, or realizes just now screwed they are and rolls with it anyway, give them a chip or two. Reward firsts early to get the ball rolling. First note from a player? Here's a chip. First attempt to harm another PC? Chip. First attempt to use a mutant power? Contact The Computer? Use equipment they don't understand? Willingly talk to a citizen of higher clearance? Use their hidden, treasonous equipment? You get the idea.

• Even if using pregens (highly recommended), make them roll for their mutant power. If it comes up something boring (Uncanny Luck), offer to let them reroll. This makes it random and interesting for you, and might even give them a tiny amount of buy-in.

• Ask them if anyone wants to register their mutation. If you're feeling nice, warn them of the consequences.

• Use Mandatory Bonus Duties. I like to have them get assigned during their Briefing. Consider giving the Team Leader duty to the quietest player. Suddenly, they'll have a lot of talking they'll need to do. Have the Team Leader assign the other duties, or have you via the Briefing Officer do it. Give them their MBD equipment immediately.

I hope they pass, and try to plot for them passing but I feel like I need a swoop-and-save always in the wings.

Ah, here we clearly have part of the problem. They're in a situation where they would fail most of the time if you weren't engineering things for them to succeed, so they should fail some or most of the time. If you feel bad for railroading them or for removing the challenge from the game by ensuring that they don't fail, stop doing that.

PCs don't need to succeed all the time, especially when the danger isn't lethal. Failure can be instructive and even fun! (Even, dare I say it, . . . "character building"?) Honor is so important in that setting that a moment of lost honor, a recognition that they aren't perfect in all things, can do wonders in terms of future character motivation. Plan for the characters to fail.

That is not to say that they should never succeed or not learn anything, though, but there are ways of doing that without having direct social-roll confrontations or even after failing at all direct confrontations.

First, don't worry about giving them a loyal subordinate with the social skills to take on the courtiers some of the time, and don't worry about fudging the rolls for him up or down if you have to . . . maybe he's talented but new and prone to rookie mistakes or getting rather old and not as fast or perceptive as he used to be. Also, don't worry about having him advise the PCs. However, his advice shouldn't just be "do this"; have him offer multiple options with pros and cons and let things play out from there. Heck, let him be wrong sometimes just so the PCs don't rely on him too heavily. (A sufficiently deep intrigue will have elements he couldn't expect, or that were expecting him. . . .)

Second, give them plots where their bumbling or social weaknesses are strengths. Have enemies overestimate them and plan for the wrong reaction from the PCs, have their bumbling somehow convince everyone that they know more than they do (spooking the enemy into making mistakes), have them accidentally round up all the right people for all the wrong reasons and someone confesses to the plot and then asks how they knew, or just plain have things come to a point where the villains are expecting some nuanced social reaction they can parry and the heroes decide to just charge in and take care of things the old-fashioned way.

There's one more option: The overestimated idiot at the center of a backstabbing circle. In social politics, this is where everyone tries to curry favor with the lord by telling on everyone else. As a result, the lord is spectacularly well-informed about everyone else's secrets and develops a reputation for being an omnicient badass when all they had to do was sit there and look stern and knowing. If your players can handle that kind of information effectively, they'll find ways of taking care of business without ever having to make a social roll they don't like.